Join the weekly Classic Castle set review discussion. Please post your opinions on the set play ability, piece selection, design, etc. Which sets stand up to our catapult of critique and which ones crumble in shame!

This week’s set is 9376 Dacta Castle Set.

The LEGO Dacta Castle Set was released in 1997 and sold to educators. It contains two copies each of Willa the Witch, Bat Lord, Fright Knight, Royal Knight, skeleton, and ghost. A variety of castle wall pieces, arches, various accessories, and a dragon are included.

Last edited by architect on Sun Nov 06, 2005 3:13 am, edited 1 time in total.

The selection of parts is pretty good, although I would recommend a Creator bucket full of basic bricks to go with it. The figs are okay- although the choice of Willa and the King (and TWO of each) smacks of idiocity. Still, I'd love to have this set...

I disagree that the inclusion of two witches and two kings smacks of idiocy. In theory, that would be correct. But one must remember this set was meant for educators. You try telling little Timmy and Jimmy that only one of them gets to be the King.

In any event, I would have loved to get this set when it came out. Excellent extra pieces and figs. I mean..what is it -- 14 figures (counting ghosts and skeletons as figs), four horses, a dragon, a bunch of accessories, treasure chests, walls, a jail door.. etc. All around it's a great collection-expander for AFOLs and younger collectors as well. And of course, it serves its intended purpose very well -- a funny bunch of crap to throw in a bucket and let the kids dig around in during play-time.

Would have been better with the inclusion of more 'normal' bricks to build the castle pieces ONTO, and a slightly better variety of figures. Maybe even another dragon.

Excellent set. 9/10.

Forge not works of art but swords of death, for therein lies great art.
"The Gods made heavy metal and they saw that it was good." - Manowar

The castle itself doesn't seem to be so good, but had many useful parts. As for minifigs and accessories, this is a wonderful set! So many good parts... I wouldn't keep this set intact, however. Instead, I'd take it apart for fodder, and use minifigs and accessories for other Lego castle sets, which lack in these.
Parts: 9/10
Playability: 2/10
Figs/Accessories: 10/10
Design: 1/10
Nostalgia: 4/10 (not zero because of many old parts and minifgs)

This set is quite good for some parts and quite bad for models. Half of the parts, however, ain't too great, either. The already named yellow parts in this pack are really dispensable, on the other hand it comes with big doors and with the large black corner walls that other than in this Dacta Castle set only appear in the Royal Knights 'Saxondale' Castle 6090. Also the peculiar dark grey double corner that appears in the Batlord's Castle 6097 ist part of the Dacta set.

Actually I don't even see what's this set's purpose, in terms of education. It's certainly not meant to be used for History lessons, for architectural education either (considering the poorness of the models in the instructions), nor for any kind of Ethics/Social Science/whatever. The only purpose may be keeping the kids entertained...

Since this set is meant to be used (for whatever educational goal) in schools it doesn't come with small parts like helmet feathers. They would be lost in an instant anyway.
The instructions are just two sheets of photographed (as in not drawn) tutorials to assemble some of the included parts to some very very bad models that are even worse than any KK2 set.

In a nutshell: I tthink this set isn't great at all.

Bye
Jojo

Last edited by Jojo on Sun Oct 30, 2005 4:49 pm, edited 1 time in total.

This is just the sort of nonsense up with which I will not put.Winston Churchill

I have always thought this was an interesting set. But I think the nostalgia involved (unless you had this in your classroom) is in its rarity. Because the set itself isn't that great. But it is hard to get. However, if this was on a store shelf I don't think it would sell very well. The "models" aren't very good, etc. It does have unusual pieces but you can get them elsewhere. So, anyway, not much there, but interesting nonetheless.

Hmm, I did'nt really know this set existed until it was first mentioned here some time ago. It seems like one of those sets that daycare centers and such buy for the kids to play with, I would´nt think that a primary school or the like would buy this type of set (or any other lego) so the educational value is probably low, I guess also that the reason there are double copies of the "coolest" figs (Willa and Batlord) is that the kids won't fight over them

I do'nt know what to say about it, I guess it could be cool to own it, it's pretty big with a good selection of parts and figs.

Ah, to be so lucky as to have this set. Admitedly it has some less than wanted stuff, like two Willas and all those large pieces, but hey, still a great set.

The amount of good pieces is a huge percentage of the set. Not only does one get a dragon, four horses, and various weapons and dudes, but you get those conical pieces and (if you are into them) a fair few wall/door pieces.

Not much of a set but if it appeared in a large 'grab bag' I think it would be an ideal 'castle exclusive pieces' buy. I've often thought Lego should make theme exclusive grab bags full of the larger pieces that only come in that line...(more for kids than people who have abandoned the wall pieces.)

Though I wouldn't really call this a set I would love to have this mass of figures and castle pieces. Again, as mentioned before, I wouldn't really use the yellow pieces. The figs were in my castle dark ages, I have none (because)' I was either into space sets, or video games at this point. I'd really like the weapons and large barrels, the stuff in this "set" that I don't have and are harder to come by. I like it, I love it, I want some of it.

Wilod, King of the Dilods, Destroyer of Worlds. A.K.A. Psychoboy, Ruler of the Unknown Universe, and Cheese